The present invention relates to a computer, and more particularly to a computer for a reproducing medium having a function for indicating related information of the reproducing medium.
Recently, various types of information reproducing media using CD (compact disc) media come into the market. The CD was generally used as a CD audio disc at first. Nowadays, the CD-ROM is popular mainly for a computer. The CD-ROM includes the photo-CD, enhanced music CD (hereinafter called CD-extra) and video-CD. Particularly, the CD-extra and photo-CD are also included in the multisession CD having a plurality of sessions. In each session, a lead-in area and a lead-out area are provided.
Furthermore, recently, the personal computer has been improved to have reproducing programs for reproducing not only the photo-CD and video-CD, but also have reproducing programs for the CD-Audio so as to reproduce the music CD.
On the other hand, the personal computer has come to be communicated with external equipments through networks for easily exchanging information each other. For example, in the Internet, a user activates a browser and input an address of a server which has desired information so as to freely access the server.
There is a server having a function to retrieve the address by a keyword. Therefore, even if a desired address is not known directly, if the user accesses the server having the retrieval function, the desired address can be obtained indirectly by the server.
For a high speed process, it is possible to activate a plurality of programs in time sharing and operate a plurality of functions in parallel. For example, a reproducing program and a browser program of a music CD are activated in parallel, and the music CD is played, while related information of the music CD such as title of the CD, name of music can be displayed on a display.
However, in this case, first the user must presume one of keywords of the related information such as a name of singer of the music CD to be played, and operate to activate the browser of the personal computer by the presumed keyword, thereby obtaining an address of the related information from the server having the retrieval function. Therefore, the related information is obtained by the address. Thus, a problem that a complicated operation is needed arise.
An object of the present invention is to provide a computer for a reproducing medium where related information of the reproducing medium is automatically indicated when the reproducing medium is set in the computer.
According to the present invention, there is provided a computer for a reproducing medium, comprising reading means for reading identification information from a medium set in the computer for identifying the medium, means for obtaining related information about the medium in accordance with the identification information read from the medium, and control means for controlling displaying of the obtained related information on a display.
The computer has storing means storing addresses of the related information, and obtaining means for obtaining related information from a server which has the related information corresponding to the address, and a program for displaying obtained related information.
In an aspect of the invention, the related information is stored in a medium other than the set medium, and the related information stored in the other medium is read and stored in the computer.
The related information corresponding to the identification is obtained from a server.
The computer further has manual input means for correlating the obtained related information with an address and storing the correlated information.
The computer further comprises means for transmitting the identification information to a server so that corresponding related information is obtained.
Retrieving means is provided for retrieving addresses of related information corresponding to the identification information.
The present invention further provides a computer for a reproducing medium, comprising reading means for reading address of related information from a medium set in the computer, means for obtaining related information corresponding to the read-out address, and control means for controlling displaying of the obtained related information on a display.
These and other objects and features of the present invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description with reference to the accompanying drawings.